Napoleon was in some ways more reliable as King of Italy than Emperor of France. Pen Fun www.biquge.info Cabinet once jokingly said that France could only win battles under the leadership of women (Joan of Arc) and foreigners (Napoleon). As we all know, Napoleon was born in Corsica, and Corsica only really became French territory around the time of Napoleon's birth. Napoleon's mother tongue was not French at all, but a Corsican dialect, a form of Italian. After Napoleon entered the French army, the two most ridiculous points were his short stature and his ridiculous Corsican accent French.

It was precisely because of the discrimination in the French army that the young and vigorous Napoleon once returned to Corsica to engage in the Corsican independence movement after graduating from the military academy.

Later Napoleon accepted his French identity, but more precisely, he believed that French identity was more conducive to his own performance and provided himself with a larger stage. At its core, Napoleon was a realist to the core, and for his own utilitarian purposes, he could be either French or Italian.

When he came to Italy, led a powerful army, and faced with the scattered Italian princes, and with the acquiescence of the Tang people, he turned out his identity as an "Italian", and magnificently wanted to seek a unified Italian kingdom for the Italians, to build a rich and developed country.

This matter is very painful for the Tang people, especially the Tang people who are familiar with history, and they feel that it is particularly disobedient, but it is very logical to think about it carefully. Another thing that made the Tang people unhappy was that the Tang Dynasty supported the republic, while Bonaparte insisted on crowning himself as the king of Italy.

Napoleon also seemed to know that his willfulness would attract the dissatisfaction of the Tang people, so he immediately gave the Tang people benefits, and the Dalmatian region that originally belonged to the Republic of Venice (now part of Croatia, the coastal narrow strip of the Adriatic Sea) was given to the Tang Republic as a gift by Napoleon, and there was no one who was most satisfied with this than the navy.

Dalmatia has many good ports, of which Split is a rare natural port, with this place, Datang has obtained the fulcrum in the Mediterranean, and its control over the Mediterranean coast has been greatly increased. What's more, Dalmatia is still in the Balkans, and it also has certain benefits for influencing the Balkans and Ottoman Turkey.

After taking the benefits, it is natural that Italy can no longer be blamed, and Datang will push the boat and recognize the Kingdom of Italy.

The unification of Italy had a tremendous impact on Europe, on the one hand it was a country united by radical revolutionaries, and on the other hand it was a monarchy. Both Britain and Austria hoped to win over Italy, thereby destroying the layout of the Tang Dynasty and Germany and strengthening the traditional power of Europe.

Of course, after the end of the Great War in Europe in 1795, the top priority for European countries was to accelerate their own industrialization, and almost all countries took special care in this regard. Even Italy, which had just achieved reunification, had ambitious plans for industrial development, hoping to transform itself from a backward and chaotic southern European country into a major European power.

Britain is walking in front of European countries as always, although a war has caused Britain to lose face, and even Prime Minister William Pitt Jr. has stepped down, but the British have also recognized the gap between themselves and the real power of the Tang Dynasty, and began to carry out large-scale domestic construction. To this end, the British Cabinet also added a special Secretary of Industry to be Lord Fitzwilliam.

Since taking office, the Minister of Industry has shown great enthusiasm and commitment. He first proposed to the prime minister and the royal family that they should learn from the development experience of Datang and open stronger state-owned enterprises in the United Kingdom.

As an old capitalist country, Britain advocates private capital enterprises in the free market, but with the introduction of many Tang economic theories, many people of insight in Britain also have a sense of refreshment. Especially in the situation where Tang is strong and Britain is weak, many people are trying to explore where Britain is weak, especially what can be learned from the Tang Dynasty in the system.

It can be seen from this that although Britain has always been the stronghold of conservative forces, compared with the other side in the second half of the 19th century, it took the Qing Dynasty half a century to change its thinking from learning to build foreign guns and cannons to learning the system, and the British almost grasped the main point from the beginning. They have no intention of changing the fundamental political system, but rather to learn about the system and management in the economic aspect.

State-owned enterprises and government investment are obviously quite important, and Datang's state-owned enterprises are rampaging around the world, much to the amazement and jealousy of all European powers. Most of the previous European colonial companies were backed by the government, but more often they were driven by private capital, and the government, although influential, was not direct enough.

The state-owned enterprises of the Tang Dynasty are not engaged in the colonial industry, but are more concentrated in a certain industrial and commercial field, and the government is directly standing behind it. Their earnings go to the state, and they also have direct investment from the state, and they also absorb a large number of laborers. The workers of these enterprises are more organized, and in special times they can even organize into militias and participate in military activities.

All kinds of benefits are in the eyes of the British, so the Secretary of Industry put forward a proposal, hoping to imitate Datang and establish a number of state-owned enterprises with investment from the British Cabinet Treasury. It was even proposed that the royal family should also use assets to set an example and invest in some industrial projects, while also generating income for the royal family, further reducing the royal family's dependence on government finances.

It can be said that Lord Fitzwilliam's proposal has attracted great attention in Britain, although many private capitalists and aristocrats oppose it, believing that it will squeeze the living space of private capital, but now the unified understanding of the British top and upper class society is that it is necessary to catch up and make Britain stronger, and it can no longer fail in the Tang Dynasty, so all policies that are conducive to Britain's strength, no matter how many voices of opposition, must be launched.

In this way, Britain quickly set up a series of steel, mining, machinery and shipbuilding enterprises led and funded by the government. These enterprises are more concentrated in the field of heavy industry, because the return of heavy industry is relatively slow and the investment is large, so a lot of private capital is not keen on this, but for the state, these heavy industries are related to the direct strength of the country.

Britain spent a lot of money to purchase a considerable amount of obsolete equipment and technical processes from Datang for these state-owned enterprises, and its determination and means made the Tang people quite concerned. (To be continued.) )